The Usefulness of Cognitive Theories of Learning for the HR Practitioner - Essay Example

Critically evaluate the usefulness of cognitive theories of learning for the HR practitioner [Institute] Contents Introduction 3 The Cognitive Theory and its Usefulness in Organisations 4 Conclusion 10 References 12 Introduction The working of an organisation largely depends upon how it manages its workforce and its activities. Workforce is said to be the greatest asset of an organisation and motivating the workforce is said to be one of the most challenging tasks of human resource management. In order to manage and motivate their workforce, many HR practitioners make use of cognitive theories in the organisation. Cognitive theories focus on the development of people thought process in different stages of life. According to Bandura (1989), cognitive theories explain the thought processes and the way in which these thoughts may have an influence on people’s understandings, interactions with their surroundings and their behaviour. Cognitive dissonance may cause disagreements and problems at workplace such as reduction in productivity and increase in the absenteeism or turnover rate of the employees (Schermerhorn et al., 2011). Like all other theories, the cognitive theories also have their strengths and weaknesses. This paper aims at evaluating the usefulness of cognitive theories in helping the HR practitioners. For instance, one of the strengths of cognitive theories is that they provide better understanding and knowledge on how people think. Moreover, based on the many studies done in the past, it has been observed that there are numerous positive influences of cognitive theories. This in turn has helped the cognitive theories to gain popularity since they can be used to understand the thoughts of people in relation to their reactions to their surroundings and to different situations (Bandura, 1989). However, on the other hand, cognitive theories have also faced criticism for having some weaknesses. For instance, there exists no common definition of the different cognitive theories. Nevertheless, the information provided by studying various cognitive theories has been taken into account in understanding an individual’s thoughts and reactions to their environment. This essay aims to explore the definition of cognitive theories and critically analyse the advantages and disadvantages of cognitive theories in learning for the HR practitioner. Human resource management practices are influenced by cognitive theories which are based on the assumptions that internal mechanisms like motivation, creativity, intelligence etc determine human behaviour (Shermon, 2004). The Cognitive Theory and its Usefulness in Organisations Bandura (1989) presented the social learning theory according to which people acquire new information and behaviour by observing others. Bandura described learning as a social activity driven by the desire to fit in. Although he added social element but he also argued that learning was not influenced by external environment alone, intrinsic reinforcement values such as sense of achievement, satisfaction and pride also influenced learning (Dartey-Baah & Amponsah-Tawiah, 2011). In organisations learning occurs as employees learns to fit into the culture of the organisation. Bandura (1989) used the term ‘modelling’ to explain the process of learning behaviours through observation (Sincero, 2011). HR practitioners make use of Bandura’s (1989) theory in many ways. For instance, they give importance to the concept of modelling through which employees may see their co-workers or managers as role models. Once incentives such as ‘employee of the month’ are introduced in the organisation the workers may start observing how the holder of this title performs their tasks and learn through it (Murugan, 2013). As compared to other cognitive theorists, Bandura (1989) has also focused on role of the social or workplace environment in moulding individual learning. Social cognitive theory studies how feelings, thoughts and social interactions influence the learning process. It highlights some of the cognitive processes that workers experience when they are learning. Social cognitive theory also describes how an individual learns on his/her own (Thomson, 1998). This takes place when the individual display self-control: he/she learns a behaviour without any external reinforcement to motivate him/her to do so. When practicing self-control, workers should get rewarded for it and be given the liberty to work on their own while the managers should keep a low profile. HR practitioners should train the managers to do so and not always impose themselves and their decisions on their subordinates (Thomson, 1998). Self-efficacy is another important component of the social cognitive theory. For an individual’s belief regarding their ability to successfully act in a particular situation. Self-efficacy stands Employees who believe they will be able to succeed in a certain task are most likely to achieve their goals and fulfil their duties (Atwater et al., 2007). Self efficacy has numerous important outcomes that HR practitioners can use. To begin with, it influences the determination with which employees approach new challenges at the workplace. In other words, self-efficacy deeply influences the self-motivation of a person for performing a particular task. When the employees realise and believe in their ability to achieve a certain goal (individual or organisational), they are more likely to make more efforts to achieve the goal. Moreover, it influences a worker’s choice of activities and projects.HR practitioners should therefore try to boost employees’ self-efficacy to their full potential (Atwater et al., 2007). Another factor that impacts self-motivation is feedback; feedback allows the employees to bring their efforts in the right direction to achieve the goal making it more realistic and reachable. Learning from others, also commonly known as vicarious learning (Chowdhury, 2006), is the process in which one attains skills or behaviour by closely watching someone else’s actions, in the attempt to imitate it. HR practitioners use this as one of the most frequent practices for on-the-job training. This is the reason behind pairing freshly recruited employees with the experienced workers of a company. By working together for the first few weeks or perhaps months the new employees learn how to handle and react to diverse situations (Chowdhury, 2006). Similarly HR practitioners give importance to the theory of introducing positive reinforcements as a successful method of ensuring workers learn how to work efficiently. Positive reinforcement may be in the form of both monetary and non-monetary rewards and their aim is to enhance work performance by encouraging the employees (Collin, 1997). For instance, by introducing bonus, increments, commissions or other cash rewards as well fringe benefits, the employees will be more willing to improve their performance (Armstrong, 2012). Cognitive theory revolves around information processing and what goes on in the mind of the learners; reinforcement is about past behaviours and is a feedback of how successful the past behaviour has been. As employees have knowledge of their past behaviour, they can use it to either follow the same pattern or modify it (Dartey-Baah & Amponsah-Tawiah, 2011). Similarly there is the theory of Scaffolding, a concept introduced by the cognitive theorist Wood based on ideas of the theorist Vgyotsky (McLeod, 2010). Scaffolding is the guidance and help provided to the learner, in this case the employees, by their trainer or instructor who is helping them to learn, which in this case, is the HR practitioner. Scaffolding has to be suitable to the abilities and needs of every individual employee. HR practitioners can use different scaffolding techniques such as providing the employees with appropriate training. Training may be on-the-job or off-the-job as per the requirement of the company (McLeod, 2010). Once the employees are adequately trained the HR practitioners may gradually remove this learning process. Similarly they can create two way communication channels whereby once the task instructions are given or a task has been completed the employees can give their advice and feedback. However the criticism faced by the theory of scaffolding is that in reality it is very difficult to identify and provide targeted scaffolding to every individual employee (Wimsatt, 2013). Similarly some employees do not need scaffolding which if provided might suppress their performance. Lastly this theory focuses more on the relationship between an employee and an HR practitioner and ignores the daily interaction at the workplace (Wimsatt, 2013). Cognitive theories when accommodated in training and development programs lead to effectiveness and efficiency of individual learning; difficulties in learning can also be identified through them (Riding & Sadler-Smith, 1997). By identifying their strengths and weaknesses, employees can come up with their coping behaviours. Human resource practitioners can thus use cognitive theories to create an awareness among the trainees about their individual learning processes and thus help them to become more effective and self directed lifelong learners (Riding & Sadler-Smith, 1997). When providing training to new employees, HR practitioners can use the Anthony Gregorc model which divides learners into four categories; concrete, abstract, random and sequential (Vincent & Ross, 2001). They can collect the information required when carrying out interviews during the recruiting and selection process and choose employees that suit their origination’s work structure the best. This would allow the employees to adjust in a new workplace easily as they would be comfortable with the environment, keeping them happy and motivated (Armstrong, 2012). Moreover it avoids mismatch between the employee and organisation and give the employees a sense of direction reducing frustration that would have otherwise been there. The employee retention of the organisation increases and absenteeism decreases which are among the major problems that HR has to deal with (Armstrong, 2012). Allinson and Hayes’ cognitive style index focused mostly on learning styles and information-processing but could also be applied to management style (Cassidy, 2004). The index can be used to rate the employees based on an ‘intuition-analysis’ scale by the HR practitioners which carrying out performance evaluations (Cassidy, 2004). Intuitive employees are those who process and learn information quickly without having much structured reflection or exposure on what they have been learning (Allison & Hayes, 2011). This allows them to be posted in departments such as human resources or research and development as an intuitive style gives importance to feelings, global perspective and open-endedness. Analytical employees learn through a more structured or explicit way. Since the analytical style emphasises on reasoning and detail the HR practitioners should place such employees in departments such as marketing or finance. The cognitive style index can be very useful in deciding which department the employees should be places in when recruiting them (Allison & Hayes, 2011). Allison and Hayes model views cognitive styles as flexible instead of fixed traits. According to Coffield et al (2004), cognitive style index is said to have the least weaknesses and comparatively high reliability and validity. In Allison and Hayes’s opinion cognitive styles play an important role in determining the way individuals operate and respond at each level of the learning cycle (Riding & Sadler-Smith, 1997). Just like any other theory, changes in technology influence social cognitive theory making it vitally important for human resource practitioners to keep in mind the cognitive theories when making decisions that are based on current technology for their organisation and business. It is through the use of current technology that business is able to produce quality and timely products. It is therefore necessary for the HR practitioners to consider the feelings and potential response when introducing new technologies in organisations (Thomson, 1998). Bandura (1989) has also observed that a change in technology is one of the major influences within different societies because of its impact on people’s economic and social life. Additionally, Sherman and Kurshan (2005) found that technological changes have a profound effect on the emotions and expectations of people. The use of technology –influenced cognitive theory helps the HR practitioners to understand the feelings and expectations of their employees (Murugan, 2013).For instance when a labour intensive organisation advances and becomes a capital intensive organisation it is natural that the employees will be a victim of job insecurity. The chances of them being replaced by machines will be evident and they may retaliate by showing protests or forming labour unions to prevent job dismissal on a large scale. It will then be the HR practitioner’s job to control the situation by making sure that the employees remain calm and do not disrupt the harmony of the company. Perhaps they can provide some monetary support to those who are being dismissed from the job. Another situation in which employees can show resistance is when old machines are being replaced with new machines. The employees will have to be trained how to use the new machines and adapting to new technology may not always be easy. It is therefore important for the HR practitioner to make sure that the employees remain motivated and are eager to learn. Perhaps through frequent job rotation an employee will remain in the habit of attending frequent training sessions (Sims, 2002). Cognitive theories have been applied to the organisations quite effectively and have led to behaviour modification as employees tend to follow those behaviours that bring favourable results. Positive feedback and positive reinforcement can reduce the undesirable behaviour at workplace and increase the frequency of desirable behaviours. The advantages of cognitive theory are that it emphasises how important learner motivation is and also focuses on individual needs. It acknowledges the fact that a learner has control over what he has learnt and that feedback is an important part of learning. However it also has its disadvantages for instance it generally assumes learning in organisations to be unproblematic and neutral. The cognitive approach also neglects emotions. Conclusion All in all, this paper critically analyses the different cognitive theories and how they can be used in an organisation by the human resource department. It can be seen clearly that the effects of social cognition prevail within the society and the workplace.HR practitioners thus need to come up with proper ways of understanding what goes in the employees’ mind and act accordingly so as to not only keep the employees happy but also work towards achieving the goals set by the company (Sims, 2002). Additionally, an organisation should understand that employee development is a process that is influenced by many factors rather than being based on the individual’s innate characteristics (Shalleya & Gilson, 2004). Therefore, some of the training and guidance given to these employees may not be enough as some characters are developed due to interactions of the individual with their workplace environment and the people working with him. Therefore, the HR department must work towards creating a better environment that allows employees to develop through adopting appropriate behaviours and characters and prevent development of a hostile environment which would demotivate the employees (Shalleya & Gilson, 2004). Ways of keeping the employees motivated should be practiced by the HR practitioners which includes fringe benefits, rewards and recognition, monetary as well non-monetary incentives such as bonus, increment, job rotation, promotions and job enlargement (Collin, 1997). Moreover, better learning environment should also remain one of the organisation’s major concerns. Monitoring their performance, providing guidance when needed and training can be a major part in creating an effective learning environment. The HR practitioner should try to focus on what type of a learner the employee is and train him accordingly. 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